Absent friend
by mikefrombelgium
Summary: The war is over, Voldemort is dead, but Harry disappeared. No one knows about him, and Hermione is looking for her friend.
1. Looking for someone ?

Disclaimer : I don't own anything, just having a little fun playing with all of this. If you can identify it, it belongs to someone else.

Author's note : I started writing this story as a mystery/supernatural story, but my stupid sense of humour kicked in and I began to include a few funny references to other stories in later chapters and soon couldn't help myself and put as many funny references I could.

So now, while the content is more or less a drama with mystery and supernatural elements, because of all those funny references the form is a humour/parody thing.

It can be read as either or both.

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Chapter 1 : Looking for someone ?

It was very peculiar day for the wizarding world, a day both happy and sad, a time to grieve and to celebrate.

Hermione Granger, 7th year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was sitting on a log near the lake, crying.

Hermione was deeply confused, because she did not know if her tears were tears of joy or tears of sorrow.

Her great happiness came from the end of the war, of the total defeat of Voldemort and his Death Eater, of the knowledge that her life was safe again and that from this day, she would be able to sleep at night without the fear of being murdered in her bed because of her birth.

Her deep sadness came from all of those who died, of all the friend and not so friend who won't be able to enjoy thing as simple and as important as the sun at dawn again, because of all the families that were now broken by the war, and all the young lives that were extinguished during this final battle in the ancient castle.

Fred Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin, Colin Creevey who was barely one day old enough to be called of age in the wizarding world, just to name a few familiar ones, dozens of other she couldn't identify…

All dead.

So many families grieving.

The pain was nearly unbearable for Hermione, making her hardly capable of standing on her feet, yet the happiness was so great that she felt she could fly, both at the same time.

Hermione was definitively very confused and disturbed, and terribly worried, because if she was feeling like _that …_

At this sudden thought, she rose and raced to the castle, she had to speak to Harry immediately.

If she was in such a deep confusion, Harry must be an emotional wreck by now, Harry was always far more emotional than her, far too emotional really.

Hermione shivered at the thought of her best friend probable current state of mind.

She had to talk to him, comfort him, and make sure he did not react too badly to the emotional hurricane that must be raging in his mind.

He was unlikely to be in the great hall, far too many people in there, no, Harry was certainly all alone in a corner of the school, trying, and probably failing, to calm down and decide if he was to be proud of his victory or ashamed of the number of dead.

Where was Harry?

She couldn't find him in any of his usual hiding spots, all the secluded places he usually went when he had to think deeply, wanted to be alone or had to cry because the hardship he had to live.

He was not in his usual place in the Gryffindor tower, nor the owlery, nor in Hagrid's hut, in the abandoned classroom on the second floor where he sometimes went when he was upset.

Hermione even thought of the Chamber of Secrets, because if Harry wanted to hide from everyone, this place was a very good choice, maybe the best choice, since he was the only one capable to open it, but the girl's bathroom was undisturbed, and apparently no one went in this room for at least a few months.

Hermione tried to ask other people, but couldn't get anyone to answer her, the teachers, the healers and the aurors were far too busy trying to sort out the situation to speak to her.

The students and their families were either celebrating, grieving or both, and couldn't think of anything else.

Finally, after what seemed to be hours or even days, she spotted hers and Harry's long time friend Neville Longbottom walking quickly down the corridor to the great hall.

"Neville, Neville please stop, I need your help"

Neville Longbottom stopped, turned toward Hermione and answered coldly and wearily:

"Yes Miss Granger, What can I do for you?

"Neville, I'm looking for Harry, he is nowhere I can think of, do you know where he is?"

"Which Harry are you looking for, miss Granger?"

A rather stunned Hermione answered "Our Harry of course, Harry Potter"

"I never had the pleasure of meeting him. Is he a student here or friend of yours coming from outside?"

Hermione felt like her jaw has just dropped two feet.

"Is that your idea of a joke, Neville? because it is not really a good time, I'm not in the mood"

"Miss Granger, I rarely joke, I only know two people called Harry in the school: Harrisson "Harry" Pendergast, 6th year Ravenclaw and Henry "Harry" Blackwater, 3rd year Hufflepuff."

Hermione was flabbergasted, first she thought that Neville was so shocked by the battle that he couldn't think straight, but something in his eyes told her he was not that shocked, just very tired.

She decided to ask other students, many of them were not too responsive to her questions, being busy grieving, celebrating or otherwise looking for someone themselves.

The few people who answered her questions always had the same answers: no one ever heard of a boy named Harry Potter.

Everything went black for Hermione as she fainted.

TBC


	2. No kidding

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

* * *

Chapter 2: No kidding?

Hermione woke up in her bed in the Gryffindor dormitories, with a terrible headache.

She muttered: "What a stupid nightmare, utterly ridiculous, I need a headache relieving potion" and took a small glass vial from her trunk, quickly downing the medication.

The first thing Hermione did after her headache was gone was to go to the boys dormitories, to check on Harry, but he was not there.

She thought: "This is not a good new, and more worrying, his belongings are not here either".

Upon entering the Gryffindor common room, she saw Parvati Patil sitting on a couch, reading a magazine.

Parvati was alone in the room, and despite not being close with the girl, Hermione asked her what happened.

"You fainted", answered the dark haired girl "Madam Pomfrey checked you and found nothing wrong, she determined it was just exhaustion. You were brought to your bed for a good night sleep"

"Have you seen Harry?" asked Hermione.

"Harry who?" asked a puzzled Parvati.

"Never mind" sighed Hermione.

Hermione ran out of the Gryffindor common room and returned to her bedroom, to be alone to do a little thinking.

Once in her room, she spent a few minute to catch her breath, and though: "It is far worse than just an ordinary nightmare, I must check a few things, the look in Parvati's eyes was strange, she must be thinking I have lost it, if I don't want to have people thinking I'm crazy, I must be careful before talking about Harry to other people, and check a few things first."

Hermione returned to the common room and first checked the House bulletin, unsurprisingly, there was no mention of Harry.

The Quidditch Team roster showed that Cormac McLaggen had played seeker for the last five years, and again, here was no traces of Harry.

Hermione began to be really worried.

"This can't be true, someone is playing a very stupid and cruel joke on me".

Hermione went to check a few other places and things, the places where the most visible traces of Harry should be.

The list of the student clubs, of course, as the DA was listed as an official association, since their sixth year.

But unfortunately, the DA appeared to not exist.

Not a single mention of a Harry Potter in any of the school clubs, not one.

Her searches lead her to the room of requirements, where so many of their meetings took place.

She walked along the corridor three times, thinking "I need to go to the room where I trained so often with my friends"

But no door appeared, the section of old wall remaining completely unchanged.

Frustrated, Hermione paced a few time in the desert corridor.

She had an inspiration and wished: "I need to go to the room as it was used for the last time".

An unfamiliar old oaken door appeared silently in the ancient stone wall.

Hermione opened the old door, the rusty lock and hinges making a lot of noise.

When she entered the dusty old room, it looked like it has not been used for at least a couple of dozen years, with a thick layer of dust everywhere, but with such a room, who can ever know.

She then tried the Award Room, checking every single cup and award under the eyes of a few perplexed students, but again, there was no sign of Harry, not a single mention of his familiar name on any of the Quidditch Cups, or House cups, other names being seen where his should have been.

In a rather bold move, she went to the office of the Headmistress Minerva McGonagall.

There was the time for a little Slytherin cunning as well as quite a lot of Gryffindor bravery.

She felt a little guilty as she prepared to lie to her favourite teacher, but reasoned that it was not a lie, not exactly, more like misdirection and information retention.

She knocked on the door and waited for the Headmistress to allow her to enter.

"Headmistress, please, I need a little help"

"Yes Miss Granger, what can I do for you?"

"I have a little problem, I want to find a friend I had here in school in the past, and I'm no longer certain of his family name and address.

The other students were unable to remember him from my description. But I confess I'm rather bad at describing people. Could I be allowed to check the student registry to see if I can find him again? It is rather important for me."

"I don't see a problem, after all, the school registry is not secret, only the registry of future student is restricted."

McGonagall took a large and heavy leather bound book from an old stand in the right corner of her office.

"Here it is, please bring it back once you have finished"

"Thank you Professor"

"No problem, Miss Granger, it is always a pleasure to help my students"

Hermione went to check the big magical registry, and her usual thorough researches gave shocking results.

"This is bad, very bad" thought Hermione, beginning to despair, "there is no sign of a Harry James Potter in the registry, none whatsoever.

No, bad is not the correct word, this is far worse than I thought, there is no record of James Potter or Lily Evans either.  
Hell, according to this registry, there was never any Potter in the school, not one.

It is as if none of them has ever existed. Not a single one."


	3. Too many weird ideas

Disclaimer : don't own anything, just toying with it

* * *

Chapter 3 : Too many weird ideas

Hermione mind nearly blanked, how could the _entire _Potter family never have existed, it was impossible.

But impossible or not, it seemed to be.

She had to do some serious thinking before going back to her investigation, and examine the problem logically.

She needed direction, she absolutely had to know what she ought to be investigating.

As usual, like every time Hermione had to do some thinking and solve a problem, she followed what was almost a conditioned reflex, and went to the centre of all knowledge of her own little world, the library.

She laid a few pieces of parchment, a quill, an ink bottle on the table and began to take books from the shelves, including some rare books from the restricted section, thanks to a pass professor Flitwick gave her a few time ago.

Armed with a really huge pile of books, she began to read and listed the possible explanations of her current predicaments.

After several hours of book reading and brainstorming, she came with a short list of possible scenario.

As far as she has been able to ascertain, there were only five possible explanations to the total absence of Harry Potter and any of his direct ancestor, and some of those explanation were rather far-fetched.

"Okay, I have listed all possible explanation I could think about, I have five of them. I have determined how likely they are, what to do to prove each theory and what to do to solve my problems for every scenario"

The list Hermione has written on her parchment was the following:

1) This is a dream, I'm sleeping, or maybe in a coma, and all of this is just a particularly horrible nightmare.  
The probability is low, but not too low, because usually, people dreaming are not aware that it is a dream.  
How to prove or disprove it? I can't, as everything I see or feel is in the dream, if I pinch myself, it would only be me dreaming of being pinched.  
Solution: simply wait until I wake up, but this could take a while, as I know that in a dream, some dream that feel like lasting days or weeks actually last only minutes.

2) I have slipped through a hole in the fabric of the universe and I'm now in an alternate reality, or a parallel world.  
The probability of this is low, lower than a dream.  
How to prove or disprove it? I'll need to get a lot more education, this is far beyond any Hogwarts curriculum.  
Solution: I need to study at least to Mastery level in Charms, Runes, Arithmancy and Astronomy, and get a few degrees in muggle science like physics and mathematics as well (it won't be quick, alas).  
I'll probably have to contact the Department of Mysteries at some point.

3) Temporal alteration: someone or something went back in time and changed the past, erasing the whole Potter line from History.  
Probability: very low, if History was changed, how could I remember? Although, were I in an American TV show, it would be the most probable answer, in Star Trek, it is the usual explanation, damn those unimaginative writers !  
How to prove or disprove it? Same as alternate reality.  
Solution : the same (oh joy, more study, more books, … more Unspeakables)

4) Memory charm: someone changed everyone's memory and removed all evidences of the existence of Harry and Harry's family.  
Probability: extremely unlikely, how could I remember Harry if it were the case, as Harry's best friend, I would have been the first to be memory charmed.  
How to prove or disprove it: an easy one for once, just check a few people for memory charms.  
Solution: restore everyone's memory, but that wouldn't answer the main question: Where in the world is Harry Potter?

5) Madness: I'm simply crazy, I have lost it due to the horrors of the war, and thus Harry doesn't exist.  
Probability: impossible to determine, on one side it is the simplest explanation, on the other hand, crazy people don't know they are crazy, at least usually.  
How to prove or disprove it: impossible, everything could be part of the madness, even if a psychiatrist told me I was not crazy, I could simply being imagining it.  
Solution: none whatsoever, I'm doomed.

"You won't find him, he is not here anymore" said someone just right behind Hermione.

She turned to see the dreamy face of Luna Lovegood, her eyes having her usual half-absent expression.

"What do you mean by this statement Luna?"

"I no longer know someone I remember knowing for years, it is very strange, even for me" said Luna.

"You are not making a lot of sense"

"It is like having two sets of memories, one with someone and the other without, it is rather unsettling"

"So you remember him?" asked Hermione hopefully.

"Yes and no, both, simultaneously, it is hard to explain"

"Try Luna, please"

"I feel like having lived two lives simultaneously, in one of those lives he is there, and is a friend of mine, in the other live, he is not there, he never existed. The problem is that I only have those two sets of memories until the death of Voldemort. After his defeat, I have only one set of memories, those from the live without Harry. The other set, the one with Harry, is no longer, it is like if everything disappeared the instant Voldemort died."

"You mean that your memories with Harry disappeared at the end of the battle?" asked a stunned Hermione.

"No, I still _have_ the memories, it is more as if I arrived at the end of a book, I have read the whole story, there is nothing more to read"

"I don't understand"

"I know you wouldn't, you can't understand, it is as if you tried to explain the colour blue to someone born blind, or to describe music to someone born deaf, it is nearly impossible.

To go back to your little list, the fact I can remember Harry could fit any of your theories, if you agree that under quantum theory, Alternate Reality and Temporal Alteration are the same."

"Even if alternate reality and temporal alteration are the same, it doesn't help me, you know" said Hermione

"Of course it does" replied a giggling Luna

"How so?" asked Hermione, beginning to be a little tired of this apparently useless talk.

"Now you only have four theories instead of five".

"Very funny Luna, but you are right, my work is now a little easier, now can you explain how those two apparently different situations could be the same?"

"According to the Mallory theory of parallel worlds, for every possible decision and each possible outcome of any situation there is a new reality created.  
Thus, when someone goes back in time and change something, he actually doesn't change what exists or happens, he just change tracks"

"Huh? Could you elaborate?" pleaded Hermione

"It is really simple, it is just as if you decided to turn left on a crossroad instead of turning right, it is not because you have chosen to use the left road that the road on the right cease to exist, and other people could choose to go right"

"How do you know all of this? inquired Hermione, surprised by her friend's explanation.

"I read a lot of muggle books, and I love science fiction"

"Do you watch TV as well?"

Luna replied instantly: "No, the TV writers, even when not on strike, are not as imaginative, their stories are far less original and innovative."

"You are a weird girl Luna, for a Pureblood witch that is"

"You think so? Did I tell you about my mother?"

"Your mother? Not that I recall"

"My mother was really a very strange person, for a Pureblood witch, I mean, she lived a double life"

"A double life, what do you mean Luna?"

"She had Masteries in Runes and Arithmancy, and a degree in charms, she was a spell researcher, that was her wizarding life.  
In her muggle life, she had advanced degrees in physics and mathematics, and studied computer science as a hobby."

"Impressive, that is a lot of degrees; she must have been a very clever person"

"Yes, she worked sometimes with a team of scientists in Switzerland in a place called CERN, they called for her help a few times when facing problems they couldn't solve" added Luna with a little smirk.

"Very impressive" conceded Hermione.

"Yes, even more for someone who was a first cousin of Lucius Malfoy and related to the Blacks through her maternal grandmother, usually, those families despise everything muggle, no wonder she was disowned. But I digress, now back to your problem Hermione, it was nice reminiscing about my mother, but that won't help you"

"Right, so Luna, could you tell me how can you fit in my nice _four_ hypothesis?"

"Of course:

1) "If it is a dream, therefore I'm part of the dream, so I could do anything, even remembering events that never happened.

2) "As for the parallel world, I have always seen things no one else does, maybe I can see other realities.

3) "For the memory charm, it could easily have failed on me, my mind doesn't work the same as yours, and before you say anything about it, this is a proven fact, not an opinion.

4) "For madness, if you are crazy, Hermione, I'm one of your hallucinations, so I could do anything.

"In fact, my dear friend Hermione, you can easily consider "Dream" and "Madness" as nearly identical, a lot of things that applies to one applies to the other, except the solution, of course"

"Of course" repeated Hermione dryly,

"In the 'Dream' hypothesis, there is a wide range of possibilities, it is truly amazing. At the outer limits, none of us are real, we could be just parts of someone else's dream, or maybe characters in a story told to children.

But were it the case, this story is rather incoherent and therefore probably the work of an amateur.  
I don't think a professional writer would succeed in selling a story so poorly constructed, with so many plot holes and such a bad ending, and even if she managed to be published, I bet that the distribution would be rather limited. But I digress again, sorry Hermione."

"This dream theory is really frightening, Luna, now back to my problem, what do you think I must do?"

"Look for divergences between what you remember and what is, and keep a diary of your quest, but don't show it to anyone until you find a proof, or people will believe there is a hole in your mind or something like that, you don't want to take permanent residence in the long term care psychiatric wards at St Mungo, don't you, and find a pensieve to store your memories, it could help."

"Thank you Luna, I'll follow your advice"

"I'll leave you, now, I have a lot to do" said Luna

"Good bye Luna"

Luna walked towards the exit of the library, and suddenly stopped, turned to face Hermione again and said, with a strange smile on her lips: "You know Hermione, maybe you got it wrong, maybe the solution is solution one third"

"One third?" repeated Hermione not understanding.

"Yes, one third, as in the inverse of three, maybe Harry never existed in the first place and someone memory charmed _you_ in to believing he did"

"Haha, very funny, Luna, and in that case, how could you remember him?"

"Maybe I was memory charmed too, or maybe I don't really remember, maybe I'm lying and it is me who did the memory charm"

"If it was the case, Luna, you wouldn't tell me" replied Hermione, not so sure anymore.

"Maybe I just want to mess with your head" added Luna with a wink.

"Get out, you wicked witch!" screamed an irate Hermione, throwing her bag to Luna who sidestepped and dodged easily the slow moving projectile.

"West we go" replied laughingly Luna, clicking her heels three times, and then leaving the library.

* * *

TBC


	4. Comparative history

Disclaimer : just having a little fun, i don't own anything

* * *

Chapter 4 : comparative history

Despite being furious at Luna for her stupid joke, Hermione had to acknowledge that her friend was right, she couldn't presume of anything, she had to check by herself.

She decided to start by following Luna's suggestion and compare what she remembers and what appears to be.

As she was in the library, she decided use the opportunity to compare her memories and the content of the various books containing references or articles about Harry, the most obvious being _Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_ and _Wizarding Events of the 20__th__ century_, as well as a few other less known books_._

Now, there was no longer any reference to her friend Harry, in the articles and chapter where he was previously named, other events were now described.

There was no real point checking the various fiction books depicting Harry's life before he went to Hogwarts, because she knew for a fact that those books were just made up stories.

"Wait a minute, I don't know anything for a fact, just a few minutes ago, Luna and I established that I had to check everything, _everything at all_".

Hogwarts' library, normally containing only 'serious' books, held a selection of popular novels, and 'Harry Potter's Adventure' series was very popular with fan girls, or had been, or ought to be, or would have been, ...

This was maddening for Hermione, she had considerable difficulties thinking straight, for a simple reason, she was in deep grammatical confusion, for she was unable to decide which tense to use for her thoughts.

For someone like her who takes great pride in her perfect grammar, this was a torture.

Unsurprisingly, there was no 'Harry Potter Stories' anywhere in the library.

Hermione left the library and managed to check the school archives.

As she expected after checking the school registry, there was no file for Harry or his parents, no Harry, no Potter, no Lily Evans, no invitation, no inscription, no letter of acceptance or refusal, no withdrawal, no report card, no detention card, no OWL, no NEWT, nothing at all.

She found the files of Sirius Black, Lupin and Pettigrew, amongst others, but those three were the most interesting for her.

Sirius and Pettigrew graduated, but with low scores.

Lupin left school in his 4th year, for health reasons, obviously his lycanthropy.

There was nothing more Hermione could do in Hogwarts, there was plenty of other archives and record to check, but they were mostly in London.

As she has spent nearly the whole day in the library, having missed lunch time, she decided to grab a few things to eat from the school kitchens and prepare her trunk to leave next day.

The following day, immediately after a very quick breakfast, she left the school early and went to Hogsmeade to floo to the Leaky Cauldron in London, not wanting to waste four or five hours in the Hogwarts Express, she had far too much to do.

She took a room in the inn, she knew her visits in the various archives and records would take at least a few days.

Her first visit was for the Daily Prophet public archives.

He newspaper archives were in a large and dusty room, with shelves upon shelves of old issues of the notoriously unreliable paper.

Apparently, people seldom came here, the undisturbed dust coat on the shelves was at least ten year thick, for Hermione, in places where no one comes, the dust layer was indeed measured in years.

Again, there was no Potter or Evans, no traces of Lupin, but there were a lot of articles about Sirius, Pettigrew and 'You-Know-Who'.

Peter Pettigrew died during the first war, killed with the killing curse by an unknown murderer, he was buried in the family cemetery.

There was no possible error, despite having been severely wounded before dying, his corpse was intact enough to allow to be recognized without any doubt.

Sirius Black, who was an auror trainee, cornered an unknown Death Eater in muggle London, and the curse he fired hit a gas conduit, causing a huge explosion, incinerating the Death Eater and killing 13 innocent muggle bystanders.

Sirius was prosecuted for manslaughter and reckless conduct.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 years in Azkabhan.

He was paroled for health reason after 13 and died two years later of leukemia.

All his personal belongings were liquidated and used as compensation for the families of the people who died because of him.

The Black family never was very wealthy, despite being an old Pureblood family, and the meagre remaining of the long dilapidated Black family estate was given to a charity fund for war orphans.

The articles about 'You-Know-Who' and the fateful night of Halloween 1981 related that that night, the Dark Lord was last seen entering an abandoned house in Wales.

A few minutes after he entered, a huge explosion of unknown nature or origin occurred, and the house was vaporized.

Voldemort disappeared that night, and everyone assumed he died in the explosion.

When she was sure nothing more of interest could be found in the newspaper offices, she went back to the cauldron for a late lunch while rereading her 'to do things list'.

After finishing eating, it was indeed too late to go to the Ministry for Magic, as she knew the public archives and record department closed in only a couple of hours.

She instead went to Flourish and Blott's to look for a few books about recent wizarding history.

She selected three recent small books, one about the last war, one about the last twenty years and one titles '_Famous Wizarding Families of Britain' _which could contain interesting informations.

Hermione spent the rest of the day and the evening reading, but while she didn't found any information about Harry or any other Potter, the information she gained at the Prophet were more or less confirmed, taking in account the usual distortions of the famously biased rag.

She made a complete list of the various archives and records she had to visit and check in the Ministry.

The following morning, she took a good breakfast, knowing she would probably lost track of time when during her researches, and probably would skip lunch again.

She entered the Ministry at the earliest possible time for visitors and after checking at the entry desk, went for the numerous archives and records.

Unfortunately, she learnt from a desk Ministry worker that the information she sought depended from several Departments and were not centralized, again a proof of the very poor efficiency of the Ministry for Magic.

Sighing heavily, Hermione began her quest for Ministry held information by a visit in the Department of Education.

There she found no record of any Potter or Lily Evans, no record of any schooling at all, no record of any education, graduation, OWL or NEWT, nothing.

As far as the British wizarding community was concerned, no Potter or Lily Evans ever learned magic from any of them.

The international records didn't show any records of any education for a Potter or an Evans, in the country or abroad.

Her visit in the Department of Correction gave no traces of any criminal record for people named Potter or Lily Evans.

The record of Sirius Black was confirmed, he indeed involuntarily killed thirteen muggles while trying to apprehend a Death Eater and was sentenced to spend eighteen years in jail, but was released after nearly thirteen years for health concern.

The office of registry archives shown that no Potter family was ever known to exist in wizarding Britain.

No muggleborn witch named Lily Evans was ever recorded, neither any witch matching her description in the relevant period.

There was no birth record, no address, no death certificate, nothing.

The deaths of Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were confirmed, both in date and cause.

The registry shown that Remus Lupin disappeared for twelve years between the first war and present, presumed missing until four years ago.

He was listed as homeless and jobless from his reappearance until his death during the battle.

The last department Hermione visited in the Ministry was the department of Inland Revenue, for Hermione thought: "One thing is true of all governments. The most reliable records are tax records".

Predictably, no Potter or Evans was recorded, no one with those names ever paid any taxes whatsoever, no property was recorded under their names.

The property in Godric's Hollow was not recorded as belonging to a wizarding family, it was recorded as being owned by muggles, and as far as British wizard and witches were aware, there has not been a building on this property for at least three centuries.

The complete absence of any tax record for a Potter family convinced Hermione of the uselessness to continue her quest in the wizarding world.

If no Potter has ever paid any taxes in the wizarding world, it only meant that no Potter has ever existed in it.

Any trails about Harry would most likely to come from the muggle world.

Knowing that the Ministry archives held no more interesting records, she decided to request a meeting with someone from the Department of Mysteries.

The worker at the welcome desk at the entrance of the DoM was reluctant at first to help a young woman barely out of school, but after Hermione mentioned a problem regarding time or dimensional travel, she was invited to an interview the following Monday morning with Unspeakables experts in those fields, that left her a few days.

She had a lot of things to check and find in the muggle world.

She went back to the Leaky Cauldron and listed the place she had to visit for her quest during supper.

The following day, she took a large breakfast and left the Leaky Cauldron, apparated to Little Wiggin, Surrey, and walked to Privet Drive.

Arrived at number four, she instantly saw that the front garden was not as well maintained as when Harry laboured like a house elf to care for the flowerbeds.

She knocked at the door, and a small and slightly overweight woman opened the door.

"Yes, miss, what can I do for you?" asked the woman.

"Excuse me, madam, my name is Hermione Granger, I'm looking for the Dursley family, according to what I was told, they lives here."

"No, miss, there is no Dursley here, I'm Helen Preston, and I don't know any Dursley in the neighbourhood"

"Have you lived here for a long time? Maybe they lived in the area before you moved in?" asked Hermione.

"I sincerely doubt it, dear, my husband and I have lived in this house for almost twenty years, and we have never met anyone named Dursley. Why are you looking for them, if it is not indiscreet ?"

"I am a very close friend of their nephew, whose name is Harry Potter, and he disappeared a few days ago, I'm looking for him, and hoped they could help me locate him.

Apparently, the address I had for his sole remaining relatives is wrong."

"I wish I could help you, Miss Granger, but I don't know any Dursley. Please wait a few minutes, I'll ask my husband, he is in the kitchen."

"Thank you, madam" replied Hermione.

A couple of minutes later, the woman came and told Hermione: "I'm sorry, but my husband didn't know any Dursley either. We can't help you. Maybe they live in another town, with a similar address."

"Thank you for your time, madam, I apologize for disturbing you, good day" said Hermione.

"Good day to you too"

Hermione walked down the street to the house she knew was the house of Arabella Figg, the squib tasked by Dumbledore to watch over Harry, and saw a house inhabited by a young couple with children, so Miss Figg didn't lives in Privet Drive either.

She apparated to London and went to the muggle registry office, and looked for the records of the Evans and the Dursley.

There was no record of Lily or Petunia Evans, and as Hermione didn't know the names of Harry's grandparents on his mother side, there was nothing more she could do.

The Dursley record existed, there were records for Vernon and Marge Dursley.

The file of Marge showed she died seventeen years ago in a car crash, having never been married.

The file of Vernon was obviously incomplete, there was no information for him past the age of nineteen.

A quick phone call to Grunnings, the place where Vernon worked according to her memories, told her that no Vernon Dursley ever worked for the company, no application for a job for someone of this name was ever recorded.

She visited a lot of muggle offices that day, and couldn't find any record for Vernon past the age of nineteen, she looked in the files of the office of registry, of the department of correction or of the Inland Revenue Service.

As she couldn't find any record for Vernon, she went back to the Leaky Cauldron, and decided to write in her quest journal the differences between what she knew and what she discovered in the various archives.

At this point, her days were fairly routine: wake up early, get a big breakfast in prevision of the lunch she would certainly miss due to her focus on her researches, go to the library, or in this case the archives and public records, dive nose first in a huge pile of books and documents, skip lunch, work the whole day, go back to her room, take a light supper, review her notes and get to sleep very tired.

Hermione was in her element, just like school, nearly the same routine.

Hermione spent nearly the entire Sunday to prepare for her visit to the Land of the Unspeakables, better known as the Department of Mysteries.

* * *

TBC


	5. The temporal unspeakable transdimensiona

Disclaimer : I don't own anything

* * *

Chapter 5 : The temporal unspeakable transdimensionalization.

That monday morning, just as her previous visits, she went to the Ministry at the earliest possible hour, and proceeded to the DoM.

While sitting in the waiting room, she read a few of the pamphlet published by the DoM, explaining the kind of people they were offering jobs.

Hermione got interested by a job at the Department, apparently, their research division was looking for people like her, maybe she could apply for a job interview, but not before solving her current problem, she would be unable to work on anything except Harry.

At nine o'clock, a Ministry worker fetched Hermione and took her to an office.

The office was bare except for a table and a few comfortable chairs, two people wearing Unmentionnables, the Ministry nickname for the uniform of the employees of the Department of Mysteries, were waiting for her.

The first was a tall and well muscled man in his early forties, with mid long wavy brown hairs, the second was an event taller and lean man about seventy years old, with short cropped greying black hairs and wearing spectacles.

The younger man introduced themselves to Hermione.

"Good morning miss Granger, I'm Sam Beckett, this is my colleague William Bell, of course that may not be our real names, William here is an expert in parallel worlds and alternate realities , and I specialize in time travel and temporal alterations.

I believe that you wanted to speak to someone in the Department about something you believe to be a temporal or a dimensional anomaly?"

"Yes and no, I'm currently facing a strange situation, and temporal or dimensional alterations are one of the possible explanations, I'm here to try to rule it out."

"Please explain this situation Miss Granger and then we'll try to explain you why those theories are the wrong ones" added Bell with a little smirk.

"Well, it is not simple, until a few days ago, right up to the battle of Hogwarts, I had a very good friend named Harry Potter, who was very well known, or rather his name was very well known"

"Never heard of him"

"That is exactly the problem, mister Beckett, until the battle, nearly everyone in England had heard of him, now no one ever knew him, it is just as he had been erased from reality. I spent a lot of time thinking and came with four possible explanations, including nightmare or comatose state, alternate reality or temporal alteration, memory charm and just plain madness, I'm here to talk with expert about the alternate reality – temporal alteration case"

"I understand Miss Granger, you are right from a logical point of view, unfortunately, magic and logic rarely mixes" told Beckett.

"Yes, I know that, I'm not here looking for a logical answer, I'm here to try to disprove a theory, after all, as a very wise man once said : when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

"Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end, it is why so few wizards or witches are really wise, sorely lacking logic" added Bell.

"I don't confuse knowledge with wisdom, I'm just looking for informations" answered Hermione.

"Tell us the whole story Miss Granger, and list everything that you think have been 'altered' , what does appear different from your memories"

Hermione spent nearly an hour explaining everything she believed to be altered, showing them her notes and some memories.

"Can you help me ?" asked Hermione after finishing her explanations.

"Yes, Miss Granger, there are a few tests we could perform to provide you some answer. First we have to determine if you came from an alternate reality, it is in fact quite simple, as you may or not may know, every reality has a particular signature, that is unique, if you signature is the same as this universe, you are from here"

Beckett and Bell performed a few lengthy and complex diagnostic charms on Hermione and she glowed a weird colour for a few seconds while Bell examined her with a strange instrument.

"Your signature is not abnormal Miss Granger, it is within the boundaries of a native signature, but barely."

"What does that means ?" asked Hermione.

"That you are either from this universe or from one very close, sorry, we are unable to prove or disprove the alternate reality hypothesis." Answered sadly Bell.

"And for the temporal alteration?" enquired Hermione.

"No traces of chroniton displacement, but that merely prove that you did not personally travel trough time" added Beckett.

"In fact Miss Granger, for the alternate reality problem, all our detection methods can do is to determine if someone has entered our reality coming from another, we can detect someone who has been added to our reality, but, as other people know you, therefore you weren't added to this world, at most, you were substituted for the Hermione Granger native from this reality, and the DoM can not detect that." Told Bell

"So you can't tell"

"We can't tell yet, Miss Granger, maybe in a few years, a few decades at most" Added Bell.

"If you are interested, provided you attain at least a mastery in Runes and Charms, you could be offered a job in our research department, to try to find a new detection method"

"Thank you for the job offer, Mister Beckett, but I'll be unable to do anything else until I found out what happened, and discover the solution to my current problem"

"We understand Miss Granger, maybe in a few years. We are truly sorry to be unable to help you further."

"Yes, Miss Granger, William and I are not allowed to do anything as long as there is no proof of any alterations of the reality. If you find any solid proof that a real modification took place, owl us immediately, at any time, we'll come and correct the problem"

"Thank you mister Becket, mister Bell, and good bye"

"Good bye Miss Granger"

Hermione exited the interview room in direction of the entrance of the Ministry.

As soon as the door closed, Beckett sighed "Oh boy"

"Indeed" added Bell, "I sincerely hope that she is just plain crazy, because if it is an alteration, it is a truly major one"

"It is rather sad to hope for someone to be a nutter, but the alternative is really terrifying."

"Yeah, horrific thought. Now far more important, I'm hungry, let's go to lunch".

"Okay, your treat".

* * *

TBC


End file.
